Industry Insights

A common question asked during a job interview is whether or not the employee has an opportunity to work remotely. Not only does it benefit the employee by saving commute time, the employer benefits as there is no additional overhead or potential distraction by other employees in the office. The trend is common and software tools make it easy, but it’s possible there are too many software tools providing such services, thereby raising the level of concern for data security amongst IT professionals.

Kelli Stewart, operations manager at Indiana-based VAR Advanced Data Systems, discussed the benefits of being an RSPA member at the 2016 Retail IT VAR Of The Future conference on May 18, 2016 in Chicago. The Q&A included Bob Fiorentino, Member Services Leader with the RSPA. Stewart talked about the valuable networking at RSPA events, taking advantage of resources like member discount programs, and what the RSPA has done for her business.

Technology gets a bad rap for changing human interaction in unwelcome ways – teenagers using their cellphones at dinner, lack of decorum in social media, and dangerous use of texting while driving, to name a few. So it’s nice when you can point to an example of technology improving human contact.

Much of the talk around the proverbial POS Industry “water cooler” has been around the now more than six month old announcement about the new Visa requirement for all Level 4 merchants. As a refresher: the card brand is requiring that merchants in this tier must use only PCI QIR professionals for POS application and terminal installation and integration. This requirement will go into effect in January 2017. It marks Visa’s effort, in their words, to establish requirements “for acquirers to ensure their small merchants are taking steps to secure their payment environment.”

There is a lot of buzz today about the Internet of Things (IoT)—but is it a small wave to let pass, or is this a “big one” that RSPA members should be ready to ride out? This technology trend touches many parts of the retail IT market and is expected to be a bigger part of retail IT budgets in 2016 and 2017. In this article, Todd Cripe of Best of Breed Solutions and Velda Goodin of ScanSource explore what’s driving these expenditures and how RSPA members can benefit from these trends.

How is it June already? Weren’t we just talking about our plans for 2016? Time is marching on, things continue to move quickly, and I’ve begun to cherish the moments of relaxation I have. One such instance was a few nights ago, when I was relaxing and watching HBO’s Real Sports.

Retailers of all sizes are selling on multiple channels including in-store, online, mobile, and social media. RSPA members have traditionally worked with brick-and-mortar retailers, but, as those businesses have added online and mobile channels—and as online retailers have begun to open brick-and mortar stores —the lines have blurred. Many RSPA members’ retail customers are selling online, and retail solutions resellers don’t provide omnichannel solutions, could lose a part, if not all, of that client’s business to someone who does.

On Thursday, April 14, 2016, RSPA returned to Canada for its first Canadian Community networking event in Montreal, Quebec. The event was held to coincide with the dates of SIAL Canada, the country’s largest food service tradeshow and conference. Hosted at the Le Place D’Armes Hotel & Suites, the evening was an opportunity for Canada-based resellers and vendors to connect over food and beverages.

There are misconceptions about the safety of data stored in cloud-based applications such as Office 365, Salesforce and Google Apps. As a Managed Service Provider, it is imperative that you ensure any of your clients who use these applications that their critical cloud business data stays as safe as it would be on-prem.

A key part of any successful business that scales well is an ability to differentiate that enterprise from its competition. This is simple to do if you happen to be an early mover in a particular field. As the market matures, this becomes more difficult. Simply doing what everyone else is doing leads to competition based on price which is not optimal.